Overdose deaths on the rise during pandemic

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee- The number of drug overdose deaths has hit record highs during the pandemic according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Our doors are always open our lights are always on for those who need our help,” said CADAS Executive Director Paul Fuchcar.

Fuchcar said overdose deaths are also on the rise in Tennessee and Hamilton County.

He said there are multiple reasons why overdose deaths have increased during the pandemic, but a major reason is due to access to help has been hindered.

“People in early recovery are fragile in the availability Of Alcoholics Anonymous and narcotics anonymous meetings didn’t happen at first and now it’s only by zoom and so people don’t have the resources once they’re in recovery to stay in recovery,” said Fuchcar.

He said another reason is people on unemployment have been given extra money from the COVID relief bill.

“If you lost your job because of COVID you get a federal stipend. It allows for enough money to maintain most addiction habits,” said Fuchcar.

He said CADAS has continued to stay open during this time in order to help people struggling with addiction.

“We’re continuing to offer every option from before the pandemic plus we’ve also added online options for just about every program. The longer you can touch someone the better the results are. If you can get people to one year of sobriety their chances of making it to five years of sobriety are around 70% and that’s a real percentage you can hang your hat on,” said Fuchcar.

Zoom has become a big part of so many people’s life and it’s helpful but, there is something different about meetings in person.

“Zoom has been a wonderful asset during the pandemic but I do think people crave that human interaction. So we can offer both those as long as we can reach out and touch them,” said Fuchcar.